Jennifer Lawrence is I think going to be really grateful when that Dior contract is up. She should work with Calvin Klein honestly, she always looks great when they dress her. But Dior...man, aside from those ads and a couple of day dresses they do not know what to do with her.

I loved Olivia Wilde's dress. I also thought Amy Adams looked great. And I was actually a fan of Emma Stone's dress too. Aside from that my faves follow everyone elses so far.

That dress is TERRIBLE on Lena Dunham. Frankly, I think that dress would be terrible on most people, but I have like, the exact same upper body that she does and that right there is why I hate strapless dresses. NOT. FLATTERING. I don't even like those tiny boob pouches on the tiny-boobed Project Runway models. Just ugh to the whole thing, and DUDE YOU CAN DO BETTER, I just feel like she looked at it and went "well this is as good as it's gonna get on me" and I want to be like NO YOU HAVE SO MANY OTHER OPTIONS THAT WOULD LOOK ADORABLE ON YOU, WHY WOULD YOU WEAR THIS, just because strapless dresses exist don't mean you have to wear them.

I loved Elisabeth Moss's dress SO MUCH. And her hair.

I could not stop staring at Lupita Nyong'o. Like, I just couldn't stop staring. She looked like a picture. Her glorious skin and the glorious smooth unbroken orangeness of the dress, it was like if I touched her I'd be afraid I'd get a thumbprint on her. Stunning.

Binky wrote:I also liked Lupita Nyong'o's dress. She's a stunningly attractive woman, but from what I've seen wears a lot of strong patterns that end up competing with her own beauty such that neither of them wins.

I don't know that actress, but when I clicked on the link in dionneshea's post I may have sat up straight and said "wow!" or words to that effect. She looked stunning.

Also,

Instant Monkeys wrote:I could not stop staring at Lupita Nyong'o. Like, I just couldn't stop staring. She looked like a picture. Her glorious skin and the glorious smooth unbroken orangeness of the dress, it was like if I touched her I'd be afraid I'd get a thumbprint on her. Stunning.

Yes. Wow. This is why I love red carpets--once in a while you see someone looking utterly breathtaking, and this year she was it.

I don't think Elizabeth Moss' dress worked particularly impressively on camera, but I love the stills of it.

I'm the opposite. I liked it on the red carpet, but I thought it really shone on camera when she was on stage. I think her hair could have been a lot better though, it looked like she'd washed it, dried it and that was about it.

I really liked Taylor Schilling's green dress, and I thought Zosia Mamet looked lovely. I also saw a pic of Laura Prepon this morning and I think her grey and black gown is beautiful, and she looked gorgeous in it.

Can we talk about the cracked-out weirdness of Emma Watson's dress/pants combo? It's so open in back that it's basically a very formal apron.

Lena Dunham's body type is not that rare or weird, so it amazes me that she seems incapable of finding a dress that actually works for her. Also, the boob pouches flattened her out in a truly uncomfortable-looking way.

Loved Lupita Nyong'o's dress. I was also amused that Amy Adams also showed up in a red dress with matching cape, and lost the cape really quickly after she got to the red carpet, presumably after she or someone working for her realized that she was the second red-dress-with-cape of the evening, and hers wasn't quite as good (it wasn't bad, but nowhere near as breathtaking. Also, that was a lot of boobage).

Poubelle wrote:Lena Dunham's body type is not that rare or weird, so it amazes me that she seems incapable of finding a dress that actually works for her. Also, the boob pouches flattened her out in a truly uncomfortable-looking way.

I think her body type is weird and rare for the people who are dressing her? And as a result they can't fit her worth a damn? I feel like I could take her to JCPenney's and more successfully dress her in five minutes.Pearshaped with smallish boobs shouldn't be that baffling and she's what, a size 12 or 10? I mean, you're right, she is a completely normal shaped and sized woman. But presumably she has a say, so maybe she's deliberately picking stuff that sincerely does not work for her shape as a statement? On Fashion Police Kelly Osbourne tried to say the dress fit, but she couldn't pose correctly, but I really don't think that's the case.

I think looking at it from conventional wisdom (boobs must always be maximized and butts minimized/hidden) the dress would be considered a failure by many. But I think that if it had been fitted better then it would have accentuated her curviness and not squished her boobs. The color was great and if it had been fitted better to her body type it would have been more of a success. It definitely was better than some of what she has worn in the past.

Lena Dunham would look so much better if she stood up straight. I loved the color even as I disliked the strapless bodice but good posture would do wonders for her in looking good on the carpet. This is a recurring problem but I'll blame Zac Posen for some of last night since she said he'd told her to "make an 's' with her body" when standing in the dress. I feel like my grandma saying this but it's all I can think when looking at her.

bbridges wrote:Lena Dunham would look so much better if she stood up straight. I loved the color even as I disliked the strapless bodice but good posture would do wonders for her in looking good on the carpet. This is a recurring problem but I'll blame Zac Posen for some of last night since she said he'd told her to "make an 's' with her body" when standing in the dress. I feel like my grandma saying this but it's all I can think when looking at her.

Sometimes I wonder if Lena deliberately wears things that don't fit. I mean, she often wears stuff that is custom-made, and she usually looks clearly happy and comfortable with it - like that flowered Prada thing at some other awards show last year - even when it doesn't fit her at all. It's like she is daring you to criticize her body and her choices and how our "ideal" of what is considered "flattering" and it makes me want to poke her between the shoulder blades and yell in my best Asian Mom voice "FOR FUCK'S SAKE LENA STAND UP STRAIGHT."

Poubelle wrote:Can we talk about the cracked-out weirdness of Emma Watson's dress/pants combo? It's so open in back that it's basically a very formal apron.

I thought it was divine. I don't know if I just have aggravated mermaid dress fatigue, or what, but I went through my checklist - styling? Well, maybe N.A.B. Hair & makeup, perfect. Color - just right on her. Body for it? Definitely. Memorable? Certainly. Age-appropriate, fashion-forward, tailoring, not-too-naked, movement, yes, yes, yes. Most importantly - flattering? Yes. I thought she looked great in it. Not that I'd want just everyone going that way, but I feel like she had the chutzpah and the fashion chops for it.

Algae wrote:The Fug Girls wrote that Lena said Zac Posen told her to pose so her body was an "S". Stuff like that makes me wonder if designers really understand anatomy.

I think the dress looked ok if she did an "S" curve from the front - hips cocked to one side, hand on hip - but not great if she was trying to do the scoliosis "S" curve from the side. Some photos had it one way, other photos had it the other. Either way, it really only works if you are very tall and very thin, and Zac Posen needs to be whacked over the head with his sketchbook.

ETA: I checked the archives at GFY and Tom & Lorenzo, and Lena wore Zac Posen at last year's Golden Globes, too. It still wasn't great - I think the color and fabric were too heavy for her - but it was way better than the yellow gown.

I think Emma Watson looked great. At least she did something that was flattering AND interesting.

eco wrote:Sometimes I wonder if Lena deliberately wears things that don't fit. I mean, she often wears stuff that is custom-made, and she usually looks clearly happy and comfortable with it - like that flowered Prada thing at some other awards show last year - even when it doesn't fit her at all. It's like she is daring you to criticize her body and her choices and how our "ideal" of what is considered "flattering" and it makes me want to poke her between the shoulder blades and yell in my best Asian Mom voice "FOR FUCK'S SAKE LENA STAND UP STRAIGHT."

This is one thing that's so frustrating to me about the whole thing though. I do think that Lena has a perfectly normal body. And yet she often looks like Igor on the red carpet. And if she IS doing some kind of "BEHOLD MY HIDEOUS BODY! I DEMAND THAT YOU NOT LOOK AWAY!" thing, I feel like it's UNWARRANTED. Because she DOESN'T HAVE a hideous body. I feel like her inability and/or insistence on wearing stuff that fits her like that yellow thing did have the effect of making people who are watching think "Poor Lena Dunham, she is so terribly deformed." Thus perpetuating the myth that only someone 5'9" and 100 pounds can look good in a dress/undoing eleventy thousand seasons of What Not to Wear.

I don't want her NOT to be comfortable with how she looks, obviously, nor do I want to demand that she place more emphasis than she's interested in doing on looking perfect on the red carpet. How you look on the red carpet, in the grand scheme of things that a person can accomplish, is of negligible importance. But if she IS going for some kind of "fuck all y'all" thing by intentionally wearing stuff that doesn't fit, I feel that what she is doing is the opposite of what she may intend -- making people think that she CAN'T find something that fits and that anyone who looks like her should just not ever expect to look good in a dress, period. Like instead of thinking "We judge people too much on looks, and Lena Dunham is proving that even if you look like a mess on the red carpet, what counts is that she's a successful writer/showrunner" she's making people think "Oh, I'm shaped like she is and so I guess people like me don't belong on the red carpet. Even if I become successful I'm always going to be out of place and people will think I'm a funny-looking troll. My funny-looking-ness is unsurmountable. :("

So tonight is the Met Ball, and the New York Times has a great gallery of all the arrivals.

My best dressed lady (who's not a model): Sarah Silverman. Seriously, she looks gorgeous! She ought to dress up more often! Other highlights: all the men in white dinner jackets or white tie and tails (including Kanye, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Matt Bomer) and the occasional cracked out (but in a totally high fashion way) outfits. Among the victims, the glorious Lupita N'yongo. Although I gotta say, if there's an event to go costume-y at, this is the one.

Thanks for that NYT link! I love the fashion parade at the Met Gala because people take more risks, even if they fail. I think my favorites for classic looks are Hailee Steinfeld in Prabal Gurung and Charlize Thereon in Dior (both in black and white) and favorite for wacky is Brie Larson in Prada and favorites for fantastic pant looks are Janelle Monae in Tadashi Shoji and Cara Delevingne in Stella McCartney (even though I usually don't like Stella McC). Oh I liked Mary Kate Olsen's dress too, and maybe Ashley's, but can't see it too well in the photo. There was a disturbing amount of Zac Posen. Why?